In the poem Dulce et Decorum Est Owen conveys mental and the physical horror of the war by showing us and telling us the horror’s that he had to go through during the war. Also as he writes the poem he tells us the nightmares that he faces and how they are so terrific. “In all my dreams, before my helpless sight, he plunges at me, guttering, choking, and drowning”. This shows us the reader that all the thoughts that are going through his mind and killing him at the same time, but also the helplessness in the dream is just like in the war with having no control.
The drowning is significant because the soldiers are drowning in gas and in reality people drown in water which could also show that Owen could be drowning as he watches these helplessness bodies drown away. Owen also tells us how the men are in pain and mentally and physically unable to walk and carry on in the war, “All went lame; all blind, Drunk with fatigue; deaf even to the hoots of tired, outstripped fine-nines that dropped behind.This shows us that the men could no longer walk and have to suffer even when they are tired, but also so that the soldiers are able to try and get rid of the thoughts and suffering that they go through but also the ones they see suffer they drink but no of it ever works. Owen conveys the mental and physical horror of the war by using techniques such as personification where Owen tells us about the “haunting flares” which shows us that haunting can be also joined with hags and cursing.Imagery, “Bent double, like old beggars”, this shows us that the soldiers are all crocked and can’t stand up straight because of the effect of the war, but also this is a use of simile because it shows us that they are depressed like beggars and all their clothes are worn out.
During the poem Owen continues to show the horrific images and thoughts he sees and thinks of as he sees all of these soldiers dying in front of him, “Many had lost their boots but limped on blood, shod. This shows us that the men had lost their boots and that was left of their feet was blood, all that you could see was just blood. This is also a good use of imagery because it puts a picture in our minds and we can kind of picture the pain that they are going through. “Devil’s sick of sin” shows us that it’s an oral image but also a hyperbole because the devil can never get enough of sin because that’s what he’s is made from.
It’s also powerful imagery, simile showing the shameful of the men but also because most people did fight for god and the devil is making them hangs. “The blood comes gargling from the froth-corrupted lungs, obscene as cancer. ” This shows us that Owen sees these men just dying in the most painful way but also the soldiers having to suffer so much. The imagery that Owen is showing us is sound, which makes an effect on the reader, it’s almost like we can hear them making that sound but also death.The last line, “Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.
” This shows us that Owen must have been a very clever poet but usually men that go to war and are not very high up in the ranking, but because of his intelligence this made him able to rhyme different words that consist of horror and pain during the war, this also shows us that its saying his country is in desperate glory. Overall Owen conveys mental and the physical horror from the thoughts that he has seen but also what he has experienced.
